The Lakers Follow in the Wizards' Footsteps
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2/07/2007 6:45 PM ET By Matt Watson
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- Matt Watson
- Matt Watson is FanHouse's NBA Editor
This video was found on the L.A. Lakers' official site today, and I'm willing to wager anything it's the result of a Lakers marketing guy seeing the hoopla over the Gilbert Arenas-DeShawn Stevenson three-point contest (which quickly escalated from blog-love to a Cold Pizza appearance) and saying, "Hey, our guys are fun! Let's bring a camera to the next practice and watch them goof off!"
Next thing you know, Luke Walton is challenging Brian Cook, Vladimir Radmanovic, Sasha Vujacic, and Jordan Farmar to an "impromptu" game of knockout. The nay-sayer in me wants to point out that this is obviously staged -- Walton is wearing a microphone, after all -- and playing for lunch at Sloopy's pales in comparison to putting $20K on the line. That said, it was still fun to watch and sucked me in for the full five minutes. Maybe I'm a sucker for behind-the-scenes footage, but I'd like to see a lot more of this type of stuff.
As every NBA fan has had hammered into his or her head this season, the Wizards are a fun-loving bunch of crazy guys ... but I have a hunch part of the reason they've earned that rep league-wide is not only because Gilbert Arenas walks to a different beat but also because of the top-notch -- and all-access -- coverage they've been getting from Washington's media, with Dan Steinberg and his excellent DC Sports Bog at the forefront. It's refreshing (and highly entertaining) to see a member of the "mainstream media" leave the walled garden of his particular publication and not only recognize but actively interact with fans, readers and the blogosphere.
In fact, maybe there's something in the water in our nation's capital, because it's not just the Wiz facilitating (and presumably encouraging) this type of coverage -- Capitals owner (and AOL bigwig) Ted Leonsis regularly credentials bloggers for games and Nationals president Stan Kasten personally emails bloggers reporting on his team.
The fans can only benefit from this shift in thinking, especially once more teams and media outlets embrace the idea of complementing their current coverage with more behind-the-scenes (and frequently informal) insight.
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Comments (Page 1 of 1)
"The nay-sayer in me wants to point out that this is obviously staged"
Does it ever occur to you whatever Arenas does could also be staged ? This is no different. People want attention and they devise different ways.
Enough already of glorifying that Wizards team who cant play a lick of D on a basketball court. This blog discusses more off-the-court stuff than on-the-court.
Doesn't this have to be a bit older since Luke Walton hasn't played in a couple weeks..or maybe he doesn't have to be THAT healthy to play a game of knockout
its kind of weird though...the microphone thing makes it too obvious, there must be a hitch somewhere
is there a way to know when this was? Hasn't Walton been hurt the past two weeks or so.
--nycboy:
At the risk of sounding condescending.. screw it, this *will* sound condescending: I'm pretty sure the idea of the "Fanhouse" blog is to have discussions on anything that pertains to hoops in a manner that is free flowing/anything goes--that includes off-court material.
Yeah, the Wiz aren't the best team in the league. So what? Their personalities and adventures is what makes it so fun to talk about, even though it's beyond FG% and defensive matchups.
For some of us that admire these athletes' superior skill it's fun to know they do silly (if not sillier) things just like the rest of it. And I'm all for seeing what they're up to.
/alright, this was a little to "serious" of a comment, even for moi :)
spamming rules?
Our nation's capital is also FanHouse homebase.
DC = Sports Blogging Mecca
By the way, this was great post, Matt.
its great to know other athletes like what the wizards do behind the scenes. still not as entertaining as the arenas and stevenson duel.